Lullaby
by Freyja SilverWillow
Summary: Was it only a dream? That wasn't a memory, was it?


I wrote this around Halloween... what, two years ago? I had a total fridge horror moment and absolutely had to write this and then not post it, apparently. Happens after the main storyline of the manga (so, spoilers). Also, fair warning, this was written to be confusing.

Disclaimer: I don't own what I don't own, including but not limited to Fruits Basket.

* * *

><p>"How does one kill a god?"<p>

It was whispering quietly into his ear as if not wishing to wake him. But it did- that woman was too close, far too close, suffocating with her stench. Akito jolted up, heart pounding. A long shadow loomed over him, seeming to flow with the ink black of night. "How did you get in here?" Where were the servants? Good for nothing hags. "Get out! Get out right now!"

Instead, Ren moved closer, hand glinting in the darkness- a blade? "Gods are immortal, right? But even immortality has their limits. Even Izanami-no-kami tasted death."

Terror was settling over Akito. What was this madwoman talking about? Why couldn't she move? That woman was creeping closer, nauseatingly closer, but she couldn't move. It was as if she was paralyzed. "Get out or I'll kill you!" he screamed. "You have no reason to be here!"

"Please. You're such a child." Ren sank to her knees next to the futon. "Regardless of this 'bond' you have with your fantastical little harem, they won't feel a thing. If there's anything to feel. Not a thing." She brushed light fingers over Akito's shortly cropped hair. Akito flinched and tried to jerk away. "Akira-san left this world, a pure light up unto the heavens, leaving this dirty place. He awaits me there, and one day I will join him. Everything of his belongs to me." Slowly, Ren's fingers curled into Akito's hair, clutching the strands and pulling, tugging. "He left something here."

The box? Ren couldn't possibly know about it; no one would betray him like that. "There's nothing here- you're a deluded-"

"Am I?" Ren pressed in closer and suddenly there was a feeling of cold metal against Akito's skin, his delicate throat, chilly and terrifying. "He belongs to me, and as I belonged to him, so do you. What does that make me? The master of your soul? That would make your little juunishi mine as well, wouldn't it?"

"You- YOU STAY AWAY FROM THEM, DO YOU HERE ME? STOP TRYING TO SINK YOUR FILTHY CLAWS INTO EVERYTHING! THEY'RE MINE- YOU CAN'T TOUCH THEM! DO YOU- "

Suddenly the chilly blade was biting, cutting off Akito's screaming with a short yelp. Ren's voice was quiet, dangerously quiet. She should have been screaming, why wasn't she screaming? "I wonder what part of you is him. What part is nothing but Akira-san? Your feet? Your hands? Perhaps your liver or your tongue. I could cut them all out- wouldn't that be a lovely gift for him? Wouldn't that be the perfect offering to the one who saved Akira-san's soul?"

Terror choked Akito, try as she might she couldn't even force out a whimper, let alone another scream. Violently cold metal retracted and suddenly pressed into her chest, between the blades of her collar bone and fled out into the inky blackness. Disoriented, Akito stared blankly, realizing first that the only pain she felt was the tingle from laying on her arm. _What was that?_

Oh. A memory. Someone had removed Ren, bodily flung her out and away. Who was that? Or was that a part of her dream? Wait; that wasn't a memory, was it?

Akito could still feel the iciness of the blade against her skin. She wanted to turn on the light, but the darkness was oppressive and concealing, silent and looming as if death lurked just beyond the perimeter of her covers were she stupid enough to get up. Or maybe Ren waited. The darkened silence pressed at her, threatening to crush her or chew her to pieces were she to call out, but as the seconds ticked past, she grew more and more panicked. Finally she broke. "Shigure!"

She felt like such a child, crying out like this, but as she did half the shadows shattered and suddenly she could breath again. "SHIGURE!"

Footsteps. Had they gotten him too? The door opened, and lighted poured in, shading everything into grays, opaques and gloom. A maid peered in, startled as Shigure entered, looking just as startled. He waved the maid off and shut the door behind him. "What's wrong?"

Akito took a deep breath, then a few more. She was shaking badly, trembling with cold and fear. "Where were you?"

Shigure looked at her, assessing her, calm as you please now. "Was it another nightmare?"

Akito shuddered, clutching at her throat before breaking into tears. As sobs wracked her body, she felt Shigure moving closer, sitting beside her and wrapping her in his arms. Akito gripped him, clutching him as if she might die otherwise. How had she forgotten how safe she had felt with him all those years?

_Master of my soul, s_he thought, shuddering again, feeling Shigure's fingers as they began running through her hair._ What an awful thought. What an awful, horrifying, disgusting thought._


End file.
